Cross culture communication (1)

1.
CROSS CULTURE
COMMUNICATION
“The reasonable person adapts himself to the world, while the
unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself”

2.
CULTURE
 Culture is the "lens" through which you view the
world.
 It is central to what you see , how you make sense of
what you see and how you express yourself.
CROSS CULTURE
 It is a study that looks at how people from
different cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and
different ways among themselves, and how they endeavour
to communicate across cultures.
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3.
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CROSS CULTURE COMMUNICATION 3
 The study of cross-cultural communication was
originally found within businesses and government,
both seeking to expand globally.
 Businesses began to offer language training to their
employees and programs were developed to train
employees to understand how to act when abroad.
 International literacy and cross-cultural
understanding have become critical to a country’s
cultural, technological, economic, and political
health.

4.
IMPORTANCE OF CROSS
CULTURE
 Cross border movement of people, goods and data brings
more and more cultures into contact with one another and
increases the potential of cross culture communication.
 Major reasons being :
◦ Job Opportunities
◦ Improves the contribution of employees in a diverse
workforce
◦ Sharing of views and ideas
◦ Talent improvisation
◦ An understanding of diverse market
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8.
FEW EXAMPLES
 Eye Contact
In some cultures, looking people in the eye is
assumed to indicate honesty and straightforwardness; in
others it is seen as challenging and rude.
 In USA, the cheapest, most effective way to connect
with people is to look them into the eye.
 In South Asian and many other cultures direct eye
contact is generally regarded as aggressive and rude.
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10.
OBSTACLES IN CULTURAL
COMMUNICATION
 Values and attitudes: The manager may have different
values than his or her employees or the employees may
even have different values and attitudes. At the end of the
day it is the task that has to be completed and having
different values and attitudes can be overcome if all
employees all share a common vision and goals.
 Apprehension: The manager may not have enough
knowledge about how to deal with diverse employees in a
specific situation. This may result in misunderstandings
and even conflict in the business. The manager needs to
acquire “cultural skills”.
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11.
 Ignorance: Managers should never assume that all
employees are similar. Communication should never be
offensive to employees of a different cultures because of
ignorance. That is why it is so important that managers
should know how employees differ in terms of their own
cultures.
 Racism: The danger of racism or prejudice towards
employees because of their race is that it can be conscious
or unconscious, intentional or even unintentional. It is
important that a manager should never show any
intolerance against employees with different cultural
backgrounds.
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